Friday, February 28, 2014

Ellen Ripely is back in Tim Lebbon’s Alien Out of the
Shadows the first book in a brand new Alien trilogy from Titan Books. Adding to an established and fan
loved/obsessed universe it tricky, the novel has to be successful on multiple
levels in order to please the passionate members of its audience. The same ones the franchise was acquired for in
the first place. As a member of that
demographic as well as a fan of Lebbon I’ll be breaking it down step by
step.

First off the Ellen Ripley of Out of the Shadows is the
Ellen Ripley we all know. This book
takes place between the first and second movies and envisions Ripley’s escape
pod taking a detour before the second film begins. Tim Lebbon writes Ripley incredibly
well. He clearly understands all the elements
of the complex character that Sigourney Weaver brought to life in the first
three Alien films...Click either image for the full review at Ravenous Monster.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Almost a full year since publishing The Crow: Skinning the Wolves, author James O’Barr returns to the franchise with a new tale entitled Curare. If you didn’t think it was possible to surpass the high standard set with Skinning the Wolves, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with his new tale of anguish and pain...CLICK EITHER IMAGE FOR THE FULL REVIEW

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Dracula in French?
And Canadian French to boot? And
with songs! Yes, all that and more is
available to those who enjoy a delightful shiver on seeing a bat’s silhouette
on the moon, while nights are chill and days may bring more freezing rain or
snow. And it’s on DVD, “inspiré du roman
de Bram Stoker, le spectacle musical Dracula: Entre L’Amour et La Mort.” Yes, the musical version of Dracula --
in French. Actually produced in Quebec
where it ran from January 13 to December 16 2006 (with the DVD version filmed
in November that year according to the credits, although the DVD itself didn’t
come out until 2008), it has since been performed as well in France and
elsewhere. Translated as “Dracula: Between Love and Death,” it was created by
Bruno Pelletier (who also plays the part of Dracula) with music by Simon
Leclerc and lyrics by Roger Tabra.

But there is a down side, it’s only available in
French (and québécois to boot, as well as a few lines in Ukrainian) with -- at
least in the only version of it I’ve been able to find -- no English subtitles,
and as for me the title is about as far as my language skills are going take
me. So what I’ll offer here may be not
so much a review as an outline of differences between it and the plot of Bram
Stoker’s novel, so one can follow it just enjoying the stagecraft and
music. And I will say that, even without
a translation, the music is great, the dancing and acting, the costumes and
settings all great too. For me at least
-- but then I like things like les trois vampiresses (a.k.a., in the
movies, the “Brides of Dracula”) done up BDSM style with Medusa-like
headdresses!

Also the plot should be sufficiently familiar that it
can be followed well enough without really knowing the words. There are some variations from Stoker,
though, to be aware of (the large puppet-creature that starts it off, by the
way, is not a character per se but rather a sort of
announcer-commentator). It follows the
conceit of, for example, Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula
in seeing the vampire as a Vlad Tepes extension whose wife has been lost and
who discovers, 500 years later, Mina Murray as a kind of soul-descendant, thus
setting up a major conflict as being between Dracula and Mina’s husband-to-be
Jonathan Harker; Lucy in this version is Van Helsing’s daughter (Van Helsing,
seen as very religious, has tried to keep her from the evils of the world, but
she rebels with results that are not good); Renfield as a drug addict plays a
more modern sort of madman; other parts are thus eliminated but the three
vampire women have their roles expanded to almost an equivalent of the three
Fates, at some moments standing in in a way as a kind of Greek chorus. So one part is literal, a telling of a
variant of the original novel in music, but another level is allegorical taking
in the larger themes of good and evil, weakness and strength, love and pain and
death, and ultimately redemption. And it
is ultimately Mina who must choose, whereas the original “Elhemina,” as the
warlord Dracula’s promised bride, is the one who was cursed from the beginning
and so had “turned” him.

And then there’s one thing more. While I haven’t been able yet to find a
subtitled version, I have found a blog in which much of the libretto has been
translated to English on a song by song basis, though not necessarily in
production order. So for die-hards like
me, one can copy the songs out (with a warning that, even as of now, it may
still not be entirely complete), re-shuffle them as needed into act and scene order,
and watch the show with lyrics in hand to glance at as one will. And so I’ve provided a link below.

However I will recommend for a first look, especially as
Valentine’s Day approaches with appropriate spirituous refreshments on hand (or
even if not -- hot dark chocolate is nice with whipped cream and optional
sprinkles on top, and mulled cider is excellent, spiked or otherwise), don’t
worry about the actual words. You know
the story. So just sit back with a
special friend, relax, and enjoy.

James Dorr is a short story writer and poet working
largely in horror and dark fantasy with occasional forays into mystery and
science fiction. His latest collection,
THE TEARS OF ISIS, was released by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing in May
2013, joining two earlier collections from Dark Regions Press, STRANGE
MISTRESSES: TALES OF WONDER AND ROMANCE and DARKER LOVES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND
REGRET, as well as his all-poetry, all-vampire VAMPS (A RETROSPECTIVE) from
Sam’s Dot/White Cat. His own cat, Wednesday (for Wednesday Addams of the TV
show THE ADDAMS FAMILY), is more a dark gray herself and spends her days (when
she’s not asleep) slinking about Dorr’s fairly extensive DVD and VHS
collection.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

The Crow Skinning the Wolves is a return to the franchise by
long time absent creator James O’ Barr who has moved his current incarnation
from gritty urban landscapes to a Nazi Concentration camp. Even as a longtime fan of O’Barr, I was
skeptical. Can you pull off what is
essentially a supernatural revenge fantasy in the midst of one of History’s
greatest tragedies? The answer is short
is yes, by handling your supernatural elements with an emotional maturity...CLICK EITHER IMAGE FOR THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT RAVENOUS MONSTER